Agency finds race bias at Wet Seal

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that the Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal illegally discriminated against a former store manager after one of the company's executives complained about too many black employees at a store in Pennsylvania, according to a New York Times report and an attorney involved in the case.

Citing evidence of racial discrimination, the director of the commission's Philadelphia office found that Wet Seal's "corporate managers have openly stated they wanted employees who had the 'Armani look, were white, had blue eyes, (and were) thin and blond in order to be profitable,'" according to statements from attorneys involved in the case.